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Alcohol Likely Raises Cancer Mortality Risk ‘From the First Drop’

Even light drinking is associated with an increased risk of cancer death, a story published Aug. 12, 2024, in the New York Times reports. The article describes findings from a study that tracked more than 135,000 adults who were 60 years or older over 12 years. The increased cancer mortality risk was more pronounced in those with existing health problems or who lived in low-income areas. “We did not find evidence of a beneficial association between low drinking and mortality,” said Rosario Ortolá, an assistant professor of preventive medicine and public health at Universidad Autónoma de Madrid and the lead author of the paper, which was published online Aug. 12 in JAMA Network Open. She added alcohol probably raises the risk of cancer “from the first drop.” Defining light alcohol intake as roughly the equivalent of having a drink per day, the study also challenged previous research that suggested light and moderate drinking could benefit the heart. In fact, the study showed no difference in cardiovascular mortality between light and moderate drinkers and occasional drinkers, who drink less than 2.86 grams of alcohol per day on average.

Weight-loss Drugs Show Promise in Staving Off Cancer

With the approval of weight-loss drugs such as Ozempic (semaglutide) and Zepbound (tirzepatide), early studies are starting to show these drugs may also decrease cancer risk. An Aug. 11, 2024, NPR article highlights recent findings that suggest use of these drugs is associated with less risk of cancer. One study presented in June at the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting showed  bariatric surgery and weight-loss medications—called GLP-1 agonists—both reduced the risk of 13 obesity-related cancers. Those who had bariatric surgery had a 22% lower cancer risk over 10 years than those who received no treatment, NPR reported. Among those who took weight-loss drugs, cancer risk dropped dramatically by 39%. The benefits of taking these drugs may not just come from shedding pounds; the study shows even those who did not lose a lot of weight had reduced risk of cancer. “We think the protective effects of GLP-1s are probably multifactorial,” Cindy Lin, a resident physician at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland and a study co-author, told NPR. “Part of it is weight [loss], but other factors may be contributing as well—better glycemic controls, anti-inflammatory effects.”

Can CAR T-cell Therapy Increase Risk of Second Cancers?

In November 2023, the Food and Drug Administration required that CAR T-cell therapies carry a black-box warning about an increase in T-cell malignancies. A post published Aug. 13, 2024, on the National Cancer Institute’s (NCI) Cancer Currents blog breaks down recent findings, one of which is a case study published June 13, 2024, in the New England Journal of Medicine that looked at the risk of developing secondary cancers after CAR T-cell therapy. Among 724 people treated with CAR T-cell therapy at a single cancer center, 25 developed a second cancer, with only one being a T-cell lymphoma. Researchers who developed CAR T-cell therapy discussed the hypothetical increased risk of T-cell malignancies with those who participated in clinical trials of the treatment, says Stephanie Goff, a research physician at NCI’s Center for Cancer Research who specializes in developing and testing gene-engineered T-cell therapies. In the blog post, Goff provides a big picture view of potential reasons why patients who receive this therapy could develop secondary cancers—noting some are not related to the treatment itself. “Part of what complicates this picture is that people who have blood cancers already have a combination of factors that led to the development of that cancer in the first place. So those underlying issues, like accumulation of mutations over time or known genetic risk factors, are still there after receiving the CAR T-cell treatment,” Goff says, noting patients who receive CAR T-cell therapy need to be followed for a long time.

Scientists Explore Zip Codes’ Impact on Cancer Genetics

Researchers are applying what they know about the molecular features of cancer to decode what role a person’s neighborhood can play in developing these malignancies. An Aug. 8, 2024, article published in STAT describes this nascent field of research that uses numerous measures, such as average wealth and income, education and unemployment levels, and occupations of the residents, to look into the role living in disadvantaged areas has on health outcomes. The article highlights two separate studies that have shown people with either breast or prostate cancer who live in disadvantaged areas were more likely to have certain aggressive molecular features in their tumor cells. In the prostate cancer study, men with prostate cancer who lived in areas of greater deprivation had slightly higher activation of stress- and inflammation-related genes than those who lived in areas with less deprivation. Kathryn Barry, a cancer epidemiologist at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore and the senior author of the study, noted the stress from living in disadvantaged areas could cause biological impacts, like the increased inflammation shown in her research, which could increase the risk of aggressive prostate cancer.